Danes find it easiest to switch off on holiday

The online travel agency Expedia has released the latest version of what it calls the “Vacation Deprivation” study, an annual analysis of global holiday habits. The survey concludes that Europeans lead the world in vacationing as they have more vacation time than their peers elsewhere – an average of 25-30 days per year. Europeans view this holiday time as a vital part of being employed rather than a luxury. Americans, however, treat a vacation as a luxury rather than a fact of life, receiving roughly half the Europeans’ allotment of vacation time. In 2011, employed Americans earned 14 vacation days on average and took 12, a decrease from 2010.South Korean respondents holidayed for seven out of a possible ten days of vacation, while Japanese workers holidayed for just six. Italians said that they left seven vacation days unused, more than any other nation, out of as many as 28 days at their disposal.The bosses who are most supportive of vacation in the world are in northern Europe, the study says, with Norway and Sweden boasting the highest boss-approval percentages (88% and 82%, respectively.) Most vacationers around the world find it difficult to disconnect from work. But the Danes find it easiest – only one in seven respondents from Denmark say that they check email and voicemail regularly while on a break, with more than 50% refusing to check it even once.Portland Business Journal[photo courtesy Latvian Tourism]